1) thread
I wish to make one thing clear. The recent speech by Israeli PM Naftali "The Clean" Bennet is the dregs of repulsive fascism. I do not hesitate to call it what it is and I call for this bastard's immediate removal from office. However, in light of my family history
2) I refuse to use the word "Nazi" or to use any direct comparison to Goebbels and the rest of the psychopath murderers of 80 years ago. The Nazis tried to kill my mother z"l in Auschwitz, as they attempted to annihilate the Jewish nation. As someone who finds the memory
3) of the 6 million murdered sacred, I will not lower myself to using direct comparisons or - even worse - calling Israel a Nazi state, the way Hamas and Hezbollah do. I recognize that medical fascism has gripped the whole world, as predicted by a few clear eyed historians
4) as early as March 2020. Israel seems to have been seized by an even worse case of this hysteria and it looks likely some very shady dealings have gone on between Israeli leadership and Pfizer. Only historians 20 years from now will be able to decipher the whole mystery
5) In the meantime, I do not hesitate to call a spade a spade: Bennet is a leader with despicable dictatorial tendencies. If his clean/unclean scheme goes into effect, he will have made his country a pariah (though let's face it, Macron has attempted the same thing in France)
6) But he is no Goebbels and the Israeli government are not Nazis. They are just frightened, corrupt, low IQ politicians whom we must do our best to discredit and get rid of. People of good will and reason must make sure these bastards (not just in Israel) are punished!
THREAD
(I) I've had some pushback for daring to liken our current state to fascism. In fact, I've been calling it "medical fascism" since March 2020; a term I picked up from the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben (though I believe his term is "hygiene fascism")
(II) As the child of Holocaust survivors and as a person raised under Communism, I dare say I have more insight into our current predicament than do observers and commentators who have never lived under a tyrannical regime. I get scolded for using the term "fascism" lightly,
(III) which - it's being alleged - disrespects those who fought and died fighting the *real* fascism. I think the confusion stems from the fact that a lot of American and Western members of the commentariat equate the term with gas chambers and electrified fences.
THREAD 1) we are a society of self-absorbed, narcissist robot-children. We do not value family. We do not venerate old age. We either reject children or we treat them as cute appendages, like white poodles on a leash. We do not save or plan for the future and we forget the past
2) We think the past is just a boring regurgitation of phrases from history books. The words "communism" and "fascism" have no meaning and hold no threat or dread. We won't watch foreign movies because we can't concentrate on reading subtitles.
3) In the meantime, 40-year-olds zoom down our streets on skateboards, on their way to mom's basement to play video games. The past has nothing to teach us, the future is irrelevant and the present is boring. But we can alleviate our boredom by taking selfies
THREAD 1) The announcement by the EU that vax passes will be needed for travel as of July 1, 2021 is profoundly disturbing. The pass is being positioned as the "great liberator" which will allow people to take their "well earned holidays" It's nothing of the sort
2) It is a sinister move by the European Union, less than 80 years after the Nurenberg trials, to introduce discriminatory measures by dividing society into the "clean" and the "unclean" If we believe that the C19 vaccines are effective, then this paranoia is misplaced
3) Get vaccinated and you are protected. The vax status of the person standing next to you on the train shouldn't concern you. Therefore, the EU is signaling not only its intent to divide but also its lack of trust in the vaccine. I note with substantial sadness
THREAD 1) I started the year 2020 as your middle of the road conservative. Although I disliked Hillary Clinton and her venal Democratic apparatus in 2016, I was not happy about Trump's victory. I thought he was too rude, too crude, too ignorant of the issues.
2) I supported his Middle East diplomacy, which I thought was Nobel worthy but thought his tariffs and his opposition to free trade was harmful and passe. I was raised by Holocaust survivors, two very modest people. The ostentatiousness Trump displayed went against my grain
3) To be honest, I thought the Southern Baptist crowd who thought Trump was the second coming, struck me as crazy. My thinking was more or less in line with the Bill Cristol crowd - Republican "never Trumpers". Then 2020 happened. The more I read about Covid, the more I realized
THREAD 1) I assume we all have a red line. The vax pass is mine. It's my hill to die on. My barricade. Czech friends tell me: get yourself vaccinated so you can visit. Are you crazy? Has Starbucks coffee and McDonalds burgers clouded your mind? 40 years of Communism forgotten?
2) Does your new found freedom mean nothing to you? And they say: That's your American hysteria talking. You must be a Trump voter (yes, even Czech friends are TDS infected) It's just a shot, you get your passport and we can go down a few beers in cozy Prague taverns
3) And I say: the fact that they've stolen your freedom and now they're selling it back to you piecemeal (until the next scary variant comes along) doesn't alarm you? And they say: no, we're not alarmed. We're in our late 60's now, not about to march to change the world.
1) THREAD on creeping tyranny...I lived it
Prior to 1966, the citizens of Czechoslovakia required three things to be allowed to leave and re-enter the country: a passport, an exit visa and a foreign currency permit. In 1966 the authorities abolished the exit visa
2) for "fraternal socialist countries", such as Hungary or Poland. For travel to the West, one needed an official invitation on the basis of which an exit visa *might* be granted With exit visa in hand, one could get about $20 worth of hard currency - no matter the length of stay
3) This situation created two classes of citizens. Ones with relatives abroad had a chance of leaving the country, as did of course all Communist functionaries and apparatchiks. Everybody else was out of luck, though after 1966, a quick visit to Warsaw was ok